Police have registered a case against two unidentified suspects for robbing a restaurant in Lahore’s Johar Town area on the night of November 26 and getting away with a loot of almost Rs1 million.
Chai Khas, an eatery located on Main Boulevard, was jam-packed at 10:30 pm (despite coronavirus SOPs) when two alleged robbers entered the premises. According to eyewitnesses, the suspects armed with handguns took the “entire floor hostage and started taking away people’s mobile phones, jewellry, and wallets”.
The FIR of the robbery registered at the SattoKatlan police station claims that at least 21 mobile phones, worth almost Rs1 million, and Rs90,000 in cash was looted in the alleged robbery. The FIR, however, doesn’t mention the details or the worth of the jewellry. The suspects managed to finish their job in two minutes before getting away on a 70cc motorbike numbered 7102, as per the FIR.
The incident took place at 10:30 pm on Thursday while the FIR was registered around 5 am on Friday, as the owner was allegedly reluctant to approach the police at first. However, after the insistence of the robbed customers, the owner decided to visit the police station in the wee hours of the morning, accompanied by one of the customers, who also shared the account of the robbery on a Facebook group.
According to the FIR, the two suspects in their early 30s entered the restaurant on Thursday night. They sat in the cafe for a while before they took out their weapons and started robbing people at gunpoint.
Subsequently, the police booked the suspects under Section 392 of the Pakistan Penal Code that pertains to robbery. “Whoever commits robbery shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which [shall not be less than three years nor more than] ten years, and shall also be liable to fine; and, if the robbery be committed on the Highway […..] the imprisonment may be extended to fourteen years,” the section reads.
The police ASI, Furqan Anjum, remained unavailable for comments when The Current called him, seeking updates on the probe.
RELUCTANCE OF CAFE OWNER:
The people who were robbed at the restaurant have accused the cafe management of dilly-dallying in the registration of the FIR and the release of the CCTV footage of the incident. An eyewitness claimed that the owner didn’t want to go to the police because it could “damage the reputation of his cafe”. “The owner remained insensitive to the episode and remained reluctant to file an FIR,” the customer complained.
People, who were robbed at the restaurant, have asked the Punjab IGP and Lahore police chief to take notice of the incident in light of a spike in street crimes over the past several months.
